cambridge are celebrating their third anniversary. really? they returned to the uk on saturday after their 19-day tour of new zealand and australia. okay. that's it for "way too early." "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ sterling insists he's not a racist. he says some of his best credit cards are black. i have an idea that would work for everyone. i will buy the team from donald sterling for $5,000. i would be proud to take the reins of once was and will again be the worst, nose miserable franchise in all of sports.

let me say this. all of a sudden, not such a bummer to be a lakers fan this month anymore. >> good morning. it is tuesday, april 29th. look at that beautiful shot as the sun comes up over new york city. it's light out. >> it is light out. that is so amazing. >> with us on set we have editor for new york magazine and msnbc analyst john heilemann. >> but it's going to be 48 degrees the high. but it's going to be cold, but it's going to be raining. >> look, you all are here. and msnbc contributor mike barnicle is here. and in washington columnist and associate editor to "the washington post," eugene robinson. everybody's here. willie, hi. >> hi. >> hey, everybody. hey, everybody. >> right. >> so what's going on? there's a lot of stuff going on, mika. >> yes, there is. where do you want to begin? we can chat about the clippers owner. we could talk about, i don't know, john kerry's comments?

>> oh, my gosh. ukraine. a lot of stuff in ukraine. >> there's a lot. >> so in light of op-eds, "the new york times" i thought had a great op-ed on the clippers owner. >> yeah. sure. >> john, do we have that really quickly? and i think they're bringing up a good point because everybody's so shocked and stunned and outraged at what this guy said on the tape. but "the new york times" editorial board writes why did the nba tolerate this for so long? "the times" writes this morning, the league's top leadership tolerated and sheltered mr. sterling for much too long. adam silver needs to make clear there's no place in the league for owners with plantation attitudes whether or not they're caught expressing them on tape. >> i totally agree. uh-huh. >> they're also the great -- gene has a fantastic op-ed on

racism in america. and you've got "the washington post" and "wall street journal" both really critical of barack obama's latest round of sanctions against putin in russia. it's just been woefully inadequate. >> i think he had an incredible response to that criticism which we will air as well. >> i'm sure it was incredible. i can't wait. >> i'm sure you want to bomb everybody. you complain about war and then bomb everybody. please. >> if you're going to put sanctions in place, you would hope that after you put sanctions in place, the russian stock market doesn't go up. and the ruble doesn't go up on news of the tough sanctions. but we'll talk about that later. let's talk about the nba right now. >> later today the commissioner of the nba will weigh in on the alleged racist rant by l.a. clippers owner donald sterling four days after tmz first released the tapes. several sponsors already making their judgments. suspending or reviewing their deals with the clippers.

some of the top brands includes virgin america, kia, state farm, samsung. the tapes capture sterling allegedly scolding his mistress for bringing african-americans to the games and posting photos of them on her instagram account. >> look at those two. who would know they were having problems? they look like they go together perfectly. that is a love story right there gone woefully wrong. look at them. >> she thinks he's so hot. >> what are they in five years about? >> she's like i have a winner here. >> she's there for love. >> and he's there for love too. >> both of them. >> seriously? >> that's a november/january romance. >> that's a december 31st/january 2nd romance. >> some old men ought to be ashamed of themselves and some very young women should be ashamed of themselves. >> that's what i was going to

say. all right. mark cuban of the dallas mavericks cautioned against the league overreaching. >> really? really, mark cuban? >> saying there's no place in re schism in the nba. thank you for getting that on the record. any business i'm associated with and i don't want to be associated with people in that position but at the same time that's the decision i make. you have to be very careful when you make blanket statements about what people say and think opposed to what today do. it's a slippery slope. >> that's why the naacp was going to honor him because he's given money and done things until finally they couldn't because he said something so incredibly inappropriate. >> for the second time. they honored him once again. >> hypocrites. >> gene robinson, akeem abdul-jabbar has a fantastic op-ed in "time" magazine, but elgin baylor sued this guy for racial discrimination.

we heard one complaint after another after another. come on. are we to believe david stern didn't know this crap was going on for decades? >> david stern was a really observant guy. he knew everything going on in the league. he knew donald sterling for 30 years or something like that. so of course he knew that -- he knew about the guy. you know, it's -- i mean, it's interesting because if you think about it, it does make a difference certainly to the players and to the coach doc rivers that this stuff all becomes public. they must have -- you know, they must have known this is not a guy who was probably going to invite them over for dinner. and that there was some ugliness inside there. but as long as it wasn't expressed every day and it wasn't expressed in this very public way, you know, i think they could feel comfortable. i think those are the people who are really, i think, really

caught in this situation. the people who work and play for him. and so now publicly they have to associate themselves, you know, with this awful racist who thinks they're inferior and not part of his culture and not worthy of, you know, coming to his games unless he's paying them. >> really, the players are in a horrible position. last night i thought a great moment when the heat joined the silent protest. >> they did. they did the same thing the clippers did the night before. they revealed their warm-ups were inside out concealing their logo. not a statement about their own owner or team but showing solidity with what the clippers are going through. now these guys and doc rivers in the middle of their playoff series, they had a great season. they worked hard in their lives to get to this point are having to put up with this and answer questions about this around the clock. hopefully some pressure can come off them. it's amazing when you start at

the beginning. it shows how deep if this tape is in fact donald sterling, how deep his racism is that he was upset that this woman brought magic johnson to a clippers game. one of the most beloved athle s athletes. >> that's like somebody in a restaurant in 1985 in london saying how dare you bring a woman like that to my restaurant pointing at margaret thatcher. >> it's terrible. but when you go deeper, it was magic -- he was upset that magic johnson was at his game. there's so much here. now, if you read -- >> which raises the question why was magic johnson at a clippers game? >> i think the picture actually was at -- they had dodgers gear on. but if you read cuban's full quote, he comes down very hard on sterling. we just read part of it there.

but there is something to the idea that being reprehensible and being a racist and everything else is not grounds for having ownership taken away, but the free market can take care of it. free agents won't sign. fans stop coming to the game. and the other 29 owners can start coming down on him. that's happening already. in the space of 24 hours, that's already happening. >> i'm sorry, but, again, gene, this guy was getting awards from the naacp. i mean, come on. so it's just his money talking until his mouth actually finally does the wrong thing in public? >> you know, i got to think, mika, that's what it was. and i don't know. i don't know why it was the l.a. chapter of the naacp that voted and then very quickly voted to take away that award. and it wasn't the national naacp. be that as it may, i got to assume it's because of donations he made. i've read reports he gave some

money, not huge amounts of money, but, you know, it's -- this was not secret. these lawsuits, these discrimination lawsuits are on the books and have been on the books for some time. the housing discrimination lawsuits that he settled for discriminating against black and mexican-american tenants. he was quoted as saying in one of the suits that he thought black tenants smelled bad. i mean, so this was out there. >> kareem abdul-jabbar said this. he worked for sterling in 2000 and wrote this about his former employer. quote, the poor guy's girlfriend undoubtedly ex-girlfriend now is on tape cajoling him into revealing his racism. man, what a winding road she led him down to get all of that out. she was like a sexy nanny playing -- okay. this is not the part of the

thing i wanted to do. what kareem was saying, the part that i thought was fascinating was we're shocked and stunned now that we've got this guy on tape. and, you know, what's going to happen. we're going to attack him and then the parade is going to move on. when the bigger question is why didn't they address this a decade ago? >> a decade ago? how about a couple of decades ago? there's been seemingly indifference toward what donald sterling is for at least two decades among other nba owners. now, that might be oddly enough it might be the result of the fact that the other nba owners were pleased to have such a layup when they'd play the l.a. clippers. i mean, he was a loser running a losing team. you cannot discount that. you can also not discount the power of money in donald sterling's life. the corruption of cash.

let's have an dinner and another one on me. when the justice department has him in court, it's shocking. >> it's worse than indifference. as a lot of people pointed out, the clippers were a joke franchise for a long time. the nba proactively intervened in the chris paul deal. david stern stepped in, squashed that deal and then sent chris paul to the clippers. that was the beginning of them being a series franchise. they took a positive sfep to build that franchise up and i think there's a lot of guilty -- there's a lot of responsibility and guilt to go around in the situation that allowed him to fester in the way he has. >> there should be a morals clause or something. would somebody with a history like that be working here? i don't think so. why are they allowed to be owners? turning to politics as we get closer to the midterm elections. new signs that president obama may be politically toxic for

democratic candidates according to a new "washington post"/abc news poll. the approval rating is now at 41%. the lowest in this poll since the start of his presidency. he's also struggling on the major issues of the day. only 42% approve of his handling of the economy, 37% of the affordable care act, and 34% of his handling of the situation in ukraine. when voters were asked specifically if they'd rather have democrats in control in congress or republican majority to keep him in check, 53% sided with republican majority. >> wow. >> only 39% want democrats in charge. >> willie, do you have vertigo yet? like three weeks ago everybody wanted republicans out of the senate. then we got more polls out, democrats going to maintain. now these numbers are stunning. not so much the president's numbers because i think that's

more about ukraine right now. i personally think that. but that 53% or whatever that number was? that changes every week. >> his personal numbers are down to all-time lows. if you look at the affordable care act number, it's actually down five points from previous to when they announced we've got 8 million people signed up. everything has changed on this. all the website stuff is behind us. democrats are going to start running on this issue, we've heard now. and they have started to in some places. then you see how the american public generally feels about it and their feelings are worse than they were a month ago. >> the numbers are all over the place here. i think a couple of weeks ago i saw something where it was almost close to breaking evening as far as 49%. again, it's just one poll. it may be an outlier, blah blah blah. but i doubt it. numbers this bad. and by the way, it's gene's

newspaper so it's got to be right. right k right, gene? >> certainly a well-done poll. but the numbers are so different, joe. they're all over the map. and so i think, you know, you look at this poll and you take it seriously. you also wait for the next poll and see whether those numbers, you know, are confirmed? >> john heilemann. >> the bottom line is the affordable care act is going to get a little bit more popular as we go forward by the time we get to november it will probably be more popular than it is today given the depths to which its been. but it's not going to be a net winner for democrats. >> if i may -- >> and some democrats will need to run on it for the reasons that you said, running away from it is more politically damaging than running with it. it's not the case it's going to be in november that democrats are going to be -- they're embracing it because they have to, but the numbers are not going to be suddenly swung in a direction that makes it a big trump card for democrats.

>> it's going to be a state by state by state case which we've talked about for some time now. in some states it's going to be very bad. maybe mary landrieu can run on the affordable care act and criticize states for not accepting the medicaid money. that may be something that drives some of her constituents out to the polls. it's a state by state basis. but there is no doubt there's a connection between the president and his approval rating and how his party does. so obviously democrats are nervous. >> right. and given that, you should also look at the other parts of the poll where when asked who they trust to solve the country's problems, 40% say democrats. 34% say republicans. and breaking it down further the democrats have a commanding lead over the republicans when it comes to women's issues. helping with the middle class, health care, and immigration. >> yesterday republicans are up. i'm confused. >> i have a question for the table. >> yes? >> yes?

>> what do we think of the increasing reliance of newspapers, major newspapers on running poll story after poll story after poll story -- >> kind of a slow time. >> -- rather than explanatory stories about the impact of these policies on specific states and people in this country? >> i think right now there are a lot of people that are trying to figure out, figure out exactly how this is going to impact the election. the fact there's so much turbulence out there, gene robinson, points to the fact that this electorate is just not sure where it wants to go in the future. and, you know, we've got gridlock in washington and sometimes it's almost like americans get the gridlock they deserve. and the gridlock they want. >> well, sometimes i think that may be right. you know, you mentioned ukraine, for example. and its possible impact on the president's numbers. i think that's a legitimate

factor probably. i'm not sure. it's kind of the atmospherics. and people are not clicking their heels about the general state of affairs and i think that's reflected in this poll too. so, you know, the solution i think for democrats is, you know, i think it's good for democrats they make it into a state by state by state midterm and let mary landrieu run her way and kay hagen run her way and mark pryor run his way and see if you can, you know, begich is doing it in alaska. rather than having it be a national election which i think republicans want. >> okay. other news now. john kerry is on the defensive about comments about america's close ally israel. >> yeah. >> the daily beast reported that during a closed door meeting with world leaders, kerry reportedly said that without a two-state solution israel risks

becoming an apartheid state. yesterday kerry issued a lengthy statement that says he never publicly or privately said that israel is an apartheid state or intends to become one. >> this is technically correct. >> but in the same statement he said, quote, he knows the powers of words to create a misimpression even when unintentional and if i could rewind the tape, i would chosen a different word. >> barbara boxer to ted cruz, not happy with this statement. >> ted cruz calling for john kerry's resignation. yesterday on the floor of the senate. does anyone think, though, that secretary kerry said that intentionally or do we think that was a gaffe? do you think he wanted the word out there to put pressure on? >> it's a word used by jimmy carter and it's caused a lot of angst in foreign policy circles

after he used it. there are some people that have used it. no secretary of state though has said that publicly or privately. and obviously it's not only causing a lot of concern in washington, but obviously in israel. >> i think the secretary understands the impact of it. i just wonder did he say that intentionally? did he want to put pressure on people or was it purely a gaffe? >> john heilemann, what do you think? he was obviously very frustrated that the peace process he'd been pushing so hard went off track. i wonder if that was just frustration talking to world leaders. >> my gut says it was more frustration than a calculated gaffe. to me it's the language of op-eds rather than the language of diplomacy. that is the kind of thing an op-ed writer will put out there. it's not actually an unreasonable statement, risks the decline into a situation in wuch a public school -- a

minority is governing in a way the majority. there are many people concerned that is a possible thing that could happen. >> i couldn't disagree with you more. and i couldn't disagree with you more for 20 years just about you saying that it's a reasonable statement. i think there are a lot of americans that don't think it is a reasonable statement. that said -- >> that there is a risk of that happening? >> no, there's not ruisk that te government of israel is going to devolve into what johannesburg was like back in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. >> i don't think that's the analogy anybody is drawing. technically speaking what many people are concerned about and some politicians are voiced this in the past that unless you have a two-state solution you will inevitably end up in a situation in which a jewish minority is trying to govern over a non-jewish majority. and that in some sense could lead to an undemocratic --

>> don't let me cut you off. we could debate israel for three hours. i want to go back to your bigger point and that was about john kerry using the language of op-ed writers instead of the language of diplomats. >> that's a dangerous situation for a secretary of state to get into. i'd like to think his explanation, he was saying he's not trying to say this. i shouldn't have said it in the way i said it because it's kind of inflammatory. >> before we go to break, there's been another deadly day in the south. that brings the death toll since sunday to at least 28 people. in tupelo, mississippi, officials are reporting damage to every building in a two-block span with homes wiped away and power lines littered across the street. the tornado was so strong, the local nbc meteorologist was

forced to seek safety in the basement during live broadcast. >> -- basement now. >> go! >> let's go! now. >> what? >> dave, now! >> all right. now let's check in with bill kairns for more on this. >> and they were okay, by the way. they survived. the tornado jumped over their building. yesterday afternoon was very frightful for people of alabama, mississippi, and even in portions of georgia for a portion last night. and we're going to do it all over again today. here's the risk area for today. this area of red. unfortunately it's the same people that were just yesterday hunkering down in their basements, their shelters, or closets. we were looking at this area of red. a moderate risk of strong tornadoes once again today. hattiesburg, birmingham included in this. you may go into high risk later today.

we have strong storms that just rolled through pensacola, panama city. these storms will go on throughout the morning. we're probable going see another two dozen tornadoes today. we'll also watch a ton of rain on the eastern seaboard. as far as the timing, best chance for tornadoes. how's this for a number? 76 million people at risk of severe storms and tornadoes today. that's a lot of people watching the sky. >> thank you. coming up on "morning joe," former met mookie wilson. >> mookie! >> okay. senator rick santorum will be here. i'm so excited about this. comedian and author lewis black. >> lou! >> not saying boo. lou! >> what a lineup. >> up next "the new york times" reports a massive drop in income. we'll tell you how bad it is. you're watching "morning joe."

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♪ welcome back to "morning joe." a lot of talk about. first of all, you can see why a young woman would want to date this man. look at him. he's beautiful. no, look at the chins. can we just look at the chin right there? seriously? if i'm a young woman, this is -- there's number one. >> which chin are you talking about? >> that one right there. you know, clooney is, like, number two. because this guy, number one. by the way, girls, he's available now. >> are we allowed to say the true nature of that relationship or am i going to get in trouble? because he's basically giving her money and she's giving him sex. that's basically the relationship. >> mika, you had a great event last night. >> i did.

>> and very important issue to you. >> yes. the national eating disorders association honored me which was unbelievable. it was their biggest event yet. diana williams from channel 7 was the emcee. there's diane smith who co-wrote obsessed with me. and dr. margo main who is an incredible eating disorders specialist, therapist. it was a wonderful evening. really an epidemic across our country. and that woman, that woman read know your value and went in and got a raise the next day. the next day. >> this was obviously -- and we saw that in your new book. this is a critical issue for young men but also young women. women of all ages. >> and america's entire relationship with food and the diet that we have is not, you know, healthy. >> so congratulations. >> thank you. >> did you figure out what my eating disorder was? >> you eat too much and it is

not great food. >> let's look at the morning papers. >> you look better lately. >> i'm kind of thing out a little bit. >> i'm just going to be honest. i'm always honest. >> never do that shot again okay okay? >> "the new york times" profit fell 51% last quarter. the paper's projecting a mid-single digit drop in sales next quarter. the sales described the ad market as volatile on a month to month basis. print ad revenues are at its lowest level since 1950 when the newspaper association of america began tracking addai ta. bad news for the times. >> those numbers are really bad. a precipitous drop. the lowest numbers for newspapers as far as ad revenues goes since 1950. >> across the board.

you think of the things you want to sell as an individual. a home, a car, they're all online and it's all gone. it's a precipitous drop. >> from our parade of papers, the san antonio news express. a texas teen is under arrest after bringing several weapons including a loaded ak-47 to his high school. the child was mising along with three guns from their home. he's charged with possession of a weapon making it a terrorist threat. he wanted to read a list of demands over the school intercom. no weapons were fired and no one was hurt and thank god the parents were alert to the fact. and called authorities. >> horrible. the chicago tribune. a new study says the amount of violence children and teenagers are exposed to has fallen drastically during the past decade. children reported less exposure to violent behavior between 2003 and 2011. researchers say violence prevention strategies have been on the rise in recent years

especially at school. >> and "the new york times," the white house is releasing a series of guidelines to pressure colleges to combat sexual assault on campus. the recommendations urge them to conduct anonymous surveys. it also asks universities to crack down on cases by adopting successful policies from other schools. the guidelines are from a task force created by the president earlier this year. >> the times picayune. the move comes as deen tries to launch a comeback following a racial slur and scandal that damaged her image nearly a year ago. paula deen live will feature a mix of cooking, interactive games, and personal stories from the chef. you know what? they might want to cut out that part especially if it's ad-l ad-libbed. >> but i can't believe you would think -- >> no. >> you would think somebody

that's this embattled would not be able to get the guests she's going to get at these tours. unbelievable. the west coast part of the tour -- >> yeah? >> you know who her special guest is going to be? >> who? >> this guy. >> stop it. >> this guy. >> stop it. >> this guy cooks a mean lasagna. >> a lot of butter in that. >> a lot of butter. triple fried lasagna. no disrespect intended, but his chin. >> i understand the cooking of hers is incredibly unhealthy. >> it's delicious. >> it's delicious. >> her use of words and attitudes towards people is incredibly decades back. i don't get her. >> he's going to clean up. let's go to willie now. >> let's talk to editor in chief

of politico. let's talk about michael grimm here in staten island. he says federal fraud charges will not stop him from winning re-election this fall. he's now facing 20 criminal counts for allegedly failing to report more than a million bucks in sales and wages at a manhattan restaurant he once managed. what does the future look like for congressman grimm? >> well, it is a little grim, if you'll let me apologize for overworking that pun which has been used many times with michael grim. but the situation is really bad. and politicians when they get in trouble seem to go through these stages of grief where they feel they can work their way out of their problems. sometimes they do. usually they get sick and they die. in michael grimm's stages of grief, he's setting up meetings with house gop leaders where he's looking for a sign of report. are you with me? what he's finding a people are

saying i'll book you in for two weeks from now, are you free? the phone is not -- people aren't picking up the phone and aren't rushing to put him on their schedule. similar to anthony weiner. i'm going to stay and fight thing thing. who's with me? looks around and no one's with him. >> if he's cleared, why would he flee from office? >> well, his -- he says he's not going to flee from office. the question is does he have any support? when you get in situations like this, it's hard when your entire caucus is wishing you would disappear. he resigned from the financial services committee. speaker boehner said he supports that move. the question eventually becomes why would you stay? how can you be effective? every once in awhile the voters decide it's in the politician's favor. when they're in this deep, they don't. >> grimm says he's the victim of

a political witch hunt. thanks so much, john. >> thanks. coming up he was a hero for the mets during the 1986 world series run. had a little hit you might have heard of up along first base. but now he says he's nothing more than a, quote, hood ornament for the organization. what does he mean by that? we'll talk to the great mookie wilson after this. ♪ we need it right away! we cannot let the fans down. don't worry! the united states postal service will get it there on time with priority mail flat rate shipping. our priority has always been saving the day. because our priority... amazing! ...is you! the amazing spider-man 2 delivered by the united states postal service.

♪ little roller up along first. behind the back. it gets through buckner. and the mets win it! >> do i walk off right now? >> you don't, joe. >> do i walk off right now? >> you don't, joe. >> you're playing that? >> of course i'm playing that. >> why don't you play the lady that was doing this all seven games? >> that was me. >> holy cow. >> you're done. >> kevin blowing two games too. >> i don't blame buckner. i blame calvin. >> a lot of things happened in that game. >> by the way, this is the man

who had that hit, the little roller up along first. mookie wilson is the author of the new book "mookie: life, baseball, and the '86 mets." we were just talking about that play. want to talk about your career and your life, but that play right there. you hit that dribbler. you got to figure you're an out at that point. >> pretty much. >> or did you think you could beat buckner to the bag given his physical liabilities? >> not at first. when i hit the ball, a couple things went through my mind i can't repeat on tv. >> you thought you were out. >> i thought i was out, i really did. >> so did i. >> but you teach kids from even in little league, run, run, run. that's something i've always done. for one time it really paid off. that really meant something. so i'm happy about that. >> watching that play in my mind's eye, i was there that night. watching it again, i kind of

believe -- buckner was a great player. >> no doubt. >> he was a great hall of fame baseball player. we shouldn't neglect that. given his physical infirmities at that stage of his career, i think you would have beaten him to the bag if you went to the bag cleanly. >> the motion he had to get to the ball and the fact it was back and i'm running straight in a full head of steam. i think the odds were in my favor. i think no one can really debate that. you can debate it, but not to the point. >> that '86 people was fun to watch. the cast of characters. yourself, gary carter, darryl strawberry, ray knight. what was it like in the locker room day-to-day? >> you can't say a lot of that on tv either. >> this is 1980s new york, so people were having fun after the games as well.

but what was it like in the locker room? >> so much has been written about that team. some good, some bad, some kpraj rated. outside the locker room we had what we called the scum bunch. and this other group of guys that were completely reserve. and in the middle we had the guys that kept them all together. it was a great mixture of characters in that ball club. and i think that was part of what people loved about -- because the guys wasn't afraid to be themselves. they could never do that in today's era with the iphones and the youtube and all that. >> but you were a team player on with a bunch of guys that were sort of me first, me first guys. >> no, not a bumpbl nch of guys. every team has that guy. you have to be a little selfish in sports because the way you perform is how you get paid.

>> we wouldn't understand that. >> it's more than numbers. there were a couple guys that always at some point i want to do this for me. but as a collective whole, guys just loved each other. >> who were the guys in your club who brought the two sides together? who were leaders of the team? >> well, the one guy to me was keith hernandez. keith hernandez, he was very intelligent, by they way. he had a little wild streak in him also. >> little. just a little. >> but he was all business. >> and mick jagger likes women some. >> but he was all buzz. i think i was more reserved. i wasn't as much to go to guys and say you ought to do this, you ought to do this. i wasn't that type of guy. i was the one would answer when asked. keith would go to you.

he was to us the captain of that club before he was even named captain of the club. because that's what he did. he brought the two sides together. everyone respected keith. he was very, very intelligent. >> mookie, since this book came out you made comments about your role in the history of the mets and the current state of the mets where you called yourself nothing more than a hood ornament for the new york mets. what did you mean by that? >> i think that what i wanted people to understand is when you take one, you know, part of a book and you have to take it in context with the whole book. that's the first thing. and when i used the term hood ornament, it was meant that i didn't think that i had the position in the club to really help the club come back to where it was before in terms of baseball. and that i was just a person that people would see me and they would think mets. it's just like when you're

driving a car, you know the car by the symbol on the hood. you know, and when people see me walking the street, it's met. not realizing that although i was there, i wasn't at the capacity that i felt i should be. >> so would you like to see something more from the mets organization? could they reach out to you more, is that what you mean by that? >> well, i guess that's pretty much what i said. but at the time when this was written, all of us go through things you reassess in your lives of what you've done and could have done or hoped you could have done anyway. and i just don't think i have fulfilled the potential that i have in terms of baseball. and as far as the mets reaching out, you know, there is a window that all of us have to play baseball, to coach baseball, or to manage or whatever. when that window is passed, then you move on. you know? and i think the window for me is closing very, very rapidly.

whether someone reaches out and says, hey, we want you to do more, i don't know. that wasn't the purpose of the book. that was the purpose of explaining how mookie wilson felt and how i got to where i am now. >> i think there are a lot of people that say you did a pretty darn good job of fulfilling your potential. you were fun to watch as a i plaer and that people will go down in history books as one of the best of all time. the book is "mookie: life, baseball, and the '86 mets." thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> coming up next, mika's must read pages. more to come on "morning joe." ♪

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it is time now for the must read opinion pages. kareem abdul-jabbar writes on time.com, welcome to the finger wagging olympics. make no mistake, donald sterling is the villain of the story, but he is a just a hand maiden to the bigger evil. we shouldn't lose sight that racism is the true enemy. he's just another jerk with more money than brains. so if we're all going to be outraged, let's be outraged we weren't more outraged when his racism was first evident. let's be outraged that whoever did the betraying will probably get a book deal. let's use this tawdry incident to remind ourselves of the old saying, eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. instead of being content to measure sterling and go back to sleep, we need to expose and

eliminate racism at its first signs. >> i don't know what else you can say about that. kareem abdul-jabbar, he's been a victim of racism. he knows what it is. we all ought to be more aware of it. donald sterling's racism has been a pattern to it for at least a decade and a half. and we remain silent. the nba remains silent. it's not the first time this has occurred and it won't be the last. >> all right. coming up at the top of the hour, sports illustrated joins us on the controversy. we'll be right back. ♪ when la quinta.com sends sales rep steve hatfield the ready for you alert, the second his room is ready. you know what he brings? any questions? can i get an a, steve? yes! three a's! he brings his a-game! the ready for you alert, only at laquinta.com!

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♪ we're talking about keith hernandez again? keith hernandez, man. that guy was a train wreck in '86 wasn't he? >> he was a hell of a player. >> focus on the ball coming in, you think? >> i loved keith hernandez. and he's a great announcer today. but he likes to have a good tomb. >> he's a great american. >> that's what i want to know. stop it. >> i say he's more of an example -- >> coming up tomorrow on

"morning joe," tim pawlenty and david miliband. >> did you see billy joel admitted to using smack? >> what's smack? up next, should the nba do more to get rid of donald sterling? the answer is yes. sports illustrated jon wertheim is here. how we looking here, charlie? s are looking great. excellent. hey, what are you guys doing? oh, well we're double checking the distributed antenna system. so when all you fans post to instagram, there will be more network to handle it.

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wait -- more than happy to suggest sterling is not the only one at fault here. >> he got set up by a very, very flippant girlfriend. let's face it. she was baiting him and she's a terrible human being. she's called the girlfriend from hell. >> that's why i recommend to all my wealthy old friends that they only date trump brand gold digging girlfriends. i promise the highest quality gold digging money can buy. return policy can't be beat. >> it's just not right. all right. welcome back to "morning joe." >> it's starting to look ominous. >> it was pretty at first. >> looking for the bat signal of gotham. >> eugene robinson is with us. and joining us from sports illustrated jon worertheim.

>> we've got to ask this. name the met in 1986 that would only slide in head first because he had drugs in his pocket. >> tim rains. >> urban legend. >> let me ask. lenny dykstra, the greatest investor you've seen? >> the prison term, he ripped his mother off. crazy story. >> i believe that car wash bit, willie. what happened? >> magazine too. >> luxury. >> who did the most coke on the '86 mets? anybody? >> baseball analytics. there are metrics for that. >> which one? it was the final scene in "scarface". >> bill james. it's a tie. >> between hernandez and doc and darryl, right? >> let's get to the news. later today the commissioner of the nba will weigh in on the

alleged racist rapt by l.a. clippers owner donnell sterling. several sponsors are already making their judgment suspending or reviewing thundershow ining the clippers. the recordings in question allegedly capture sterling scolding his mistress at the time for bringing african-american men to clippers games and posting photos of them on her instagram account. what a lovely couple. >> look at them. who'd believe they were having trouble? >> really. >> jon, a lot of people since the moment this story broke are saying strip his ownership. lebron james says there's no place for him in the league. all the leading lights of the nba current and past said get rid of the guy. what are the options this morning for adam silver the league commissioner but also the other owners. what can they do to force this guy out. can they say you can't own the

team? >> on a three-days notice, they're not going to strip the guy of the property. we all hear it's repugnant, but what is justice? the guy's got a big business. you can tell him he can't go to games which is probably what's going to happen today. but it's a big leap to force a sale. that's not going to happen today. i do think there's a question of we're all offended and what can we do this guy? >> we heard about the lawsuit from elgin baylor. we've heard of a lot of other stories now. david stern had to hear stories through the years. this guy has been an owner since the early 1980s. he has a clear record of if not out and out racism, racial intolerance, why wasn't something done before now? >> you're right. this is the longest tenured nba owner. 30-plus years here this guy has been a problem for years and years.

2000 sports illustrated did a piece. saturday i got a text from an executive. you hear these remarks and you think -- the response was donald went off. people knew about this guy and the fact this ironically exploded weeks after stern gave up his commissionership is an irony here. >> gene robinson has a question. gene? >> jon, isn't really the question here going forward image? the image of the league which under david stern was so sort of carefully built around these players who are stars, who come into your living rooms not just in games but in commercials and everything. doesn't this really create a problem for the league and doesn't the league have to do something to get rid of this sort of blot on this carefully constructed image they've built? >> absolutely. the other part of the league's

image was it was a progressive sports league. this had minority management before anyone else. jason collins was playing this week. to have an owner make these remarks is really rough on the nba. again, the question is just what are we going to do here? the guy has been an owner. he has his sports property. did you make him sell? which legally is going to be tough. do you ease him out? i think in the nba from a pr perspective, this is disaster. it's also the first week of the playoffs. and the sad irony, the clippers for the first time finally a good team. they've taken over l.a. from the lakers. this is a mess for the nba. >> doesn't part of this issue, we've been talking about now nonstop now for four or five days, revolve around you're a member of a club as an owner. and the other members of a club know what you do outside of the confines of the nba. that's what he does in his private time. that's the business he's in.

that's how he made his money. as long as it doesn't affect the nba, they're not going to rattle the teacups here. >> we've heard from players, entertainers, athletes in other sports. everybody's outraged. i haven't heard this outcry from the other owners. i think the other thing, too, if the league can strip you of ownership on a morals clause, is that a slupry slope for the other owners? i think it would be nice if the other guys distance themselves a bit more. >> what about external pressure, jon? the dominos have started to fall. we've seen sponsors suspend sponsorships. what if free agency comes up, chris paul, griffin, all these guys say i'm not playing here. no free agent will come here. nobody wants to be drafted by the clippers. people stop coming to the games. isn't there a point at which donald sterling has to say i'm not making money anymore. this isn't worth it. >> tv is propping up the tower here. and these sponsors leaving is

not good for bliz, but as long as there's a tv contract, that's going to drive it. the other thing significant is l.a. it's a sexy market and staples. if this were happening in milwaukee or indianapolis and players said i'm not playing for that guy. but the fact it's l.a. complicates it. >> jon wertheim, thank you so much. turning over to other news. the mayor of ukraine's second largest city is fighting for his life now after being shot in the back. his supporters say he was targeted because he backs the new government in kiev. there was also violent clashes during the ukrainian unity rally. pro-russian militants carrying baseball bats went after the demonstrators. several injuries reported. posted a new series of sanctions yesterday against russia as president obama defended not using force to resolve the crisis. the sanctions target seven

russians and 17 companies. the eu also followed suit sanctioning 15 russian officials including top members of russia's military. but there are new reports which iran has been sanctioned is in talks with russia for an energy deal up to $10 billion. speaking in the philippines, president obama giving forceful response to criticism that his foreign policy is seen as weak on the world stage. >> why is it everybody's so eager to use military force after we've just gone through a decade of war at enormous costs to our troops and to our budget? for some reason many who were proponents of what i consider to be a disastrous decision to go into iraq haven't really learned the lesson of the last decade.

and they keep on playing the same note over and other again. why? i don't know. this job at commander in chief is to look at what is it that's going to advance our security interests over the long-term? to keep our military in reserve for where we absolutely need it. and that may not always be sexy. that may not always attract a lot of attention, and it doesn't make for good argument on sunday morning shows. but, it avoids errors. >> you know, mika, i've been talking about a lot of op-eds coming out against the president. "the washington post" writes this. sanctions fell short, well short of the step that senior officials threatened when the offensive in ukraine began three weeks ago. they conclude by saying we choose not to use weapons at the

disposal. "the wall street journal" writes this. imposed more sanctions on monday and both the ruble and moscow stocks rallied up 1.5%. the markets didn't take this response seriously and neither will vladimir putin. they make the west look weak and disunited. that's what putin is counting on. >> the president of the united states basically stood up yesterday saying we have less than 1% of the population fighting these wars for 13 years. whenever something occurs in the world, who is with us? nobody's ever with us. >> right. >> the europeans -- what's happening in ukraine is more of a security interest to the union europeans than the united states. but we're carrying the ball. >> nobody's talking about putting troops on the ground.

this is talking about leaning in hard economically. >> i think that's right. and i think, you know, there's no doubt that the countries were weary. at the same time we saw the polls earlier today, i'm surprised the support for the president's policy is as low as it is. we saw polls earlier that had it around 35%, the mid-30s. which for a country that clearly does not want to see boots on the ground also it seems like there's a broad appreciation of the fact that people feel as though we could be or should be doing more. >> gene, don't you think in many ways putin is sort of testing the president, testing this white house, testing the united states how far can i push this. he's seen limited sanctions once. but going today another round on individuals not on the banking system or anything like that. i guess the question is how far does putin push it given the response he's seen from the united states each time? >> willie, i think what putin's doing is not so much about testing the west.

i think he's pursue whag what he sees as russian national interest and his national interest. it involves tremendous possession over ukraine. and i think he's moving forward that goal. now, you know, the question is how do you stop him and how do you dissuade him? and i think people are underestimating the extent to which the europeans are saying no, we have to take this sort of calibrated step-by-step approach. they really don't want to go to the tougher sanctions. that would be the sort of logical, next step. and nobody wants to go to any sort of military step. that's just not going to happen. so i think we're underestimating the complexity of the dealings between president obama and the european allies. >> let's get some other news

here -- >> by the way take that up with the editorial board -- wait. you're on the editorial board. would you let me read the entire "washington post" editorial you put out? >> well, they don't always ask me before writing editorials. >> what? you won a pulitzer prize, for god's sake. >> some of them did too. what can i say? >> all right. let's been another deadly day of weather in the south. at least 11 people are dead after a second round of tornadoes tore through mississippi, alabama, and tennessee. that brings the death toll since sunday to at least 28 people. in tupelo, mississippi, officials reporting damage to every building in a two-block span with homes wiped away and power lines littered across the street. the tornado was so strong the local nbc meteorologist was forced to seek safety during a live broadcast. >> -- basement now. >> go! >> let's go! now.

>> what? >> dave, now! >> now let's check in with bill kairns for more on this, because it's not over yet. >> i got to show you this. you ever been to mississippi state to the university there? >> the guy was all right. >> yes. they were okay. there was one fatality in tupelo, but no one at the station. they all survived. >> i've been to starkville, yeah. >> this door was found by a professor at mississippi state university in starkville. the tornado that tore apart the building that the door belonged to was 20 miles away. just trying to picture that door was sucked up into this thunderstorm by this tornado and tossed 20 miles. that's how crazy these storms were yesterday. we're going to do it again today. unfortunately the same spots we just did it. we're talking areas from mississippi right along the alabama border.

of course three years ago we know what happened in tuscaloosa and birmingham. these same regions are going to be really just under the threat of strong tornadoes once again this afternoon as we go through the late afternoon up to about 10:00 p.m. one of the areas hit hard, we watched southern mississippi yesterday with a horrible storm. and i want to bring in nbc meteorologist dylan dreyer who's in pearl river. that was a frightful storm. you're seeing the damage first hand. >> reporter: that's right, bill. it's amazing to see the damage that these tornadoes caused. you know, just 24 hours ago, this was a neighborhood. these were people's homes. now you can see they are just pushed off the foundation and totally just knocked over. this is highland's mobile home park in pearl, mississippi. and the warnings went out around 5:30 local time yesterday. the national weather service for jackson, mississippi, is only about five miles from here which is kind of ironic that they were on alert themselves for the warnings they were issuing.

now, this storm was a storm that affected a lot of the jackson metro area including here in pearl, mississippi. also in brandon and richland, mississippi, where one woman was killed because her car was tossed in these storms. you can see the damage to these storms here. the national weather service will come out and assess the damage. some of the homes were taken off their foundations and reduced to a pile of rubble with their personal things now just a pile of trash at this point. the next neighborhood over, the buildings and homes are more built out of brick structures. so they are standing and we're not really seeing all that much damage with those homes. but we are certainly going to have to still assess the damage. the national weather service comes out and surveys all of this to determine how strong the tornado was. strong or not, relative to standards of other tornadoes, this is certainly one of the situations where people will come back and just say what happened? where's my home? it's so heart breaking to see.

>> dylan, thank you so much. up next, former u.s. ambassador of russia and then espn sage steele and comedian lewis black. you're watching "morning joe." ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ it's time to bring in the former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. we've been talking about criticism coming from all sides of the president's foreign policy towards russia, but what are his options? what's the best of a lot of bad options for president obama? >> well, the best of a lot of bad options is to not allow russia to annex more of eastern ukraine. >> how do we do that? >> to threaten serious sanctions. it's not the sanctions they've already done. the sanctions they've already done are to punish those people around putin and to show that

they're credible about sanctions. but the president was very clear that if you go in, we're going to go after sectoral sanctions, that's what he said. to me that's the banking section, the oil and gas. it doesn't do good so sanction somebody to change their behavior. it's a standoff. this is designed to stay don't go into eastern ukraine. >> jane harman was on last week. she and others, dr. brzezinski also, came on and were critical of the president saying he's not being tough enough, not going far enough. why doesn't he? why aren't there sanctions on i think jane talked about one of the oil companies would have a significant impact on russia's economy. what are the negative side effects of doing something like that? because if it were this easy, the president would have already done it.

>> correct. their strategy is to deter russia. if they go in, they're going to sanction. but if they do that, then putin's going to dig in. believe me, i dealt with the guy. that's going to make him dig in. >> did you ever arm wrestle him bare chested? take your shirts off and arm wrestle? >> no. the congressman, they have a good relationship. he didn't really like me, frankly. >> so he looked deep into your eyes and he did like the soul that he saw? unlike george w. bush. >> he thought i was too interested in freedom and liberty, if you want to know the truth. but back to the president. i mean, this talk of toughness if i could add a little historical perspective. do you know how many russian officials the bush administration sanctioned? zero. do you know how many ronald reagan sanctioned?

zero. general eisenhower on rolling back communism, zero. so, you know. let's have a little perspective here. >> which brings up a good point. most people would say eisenhower, reagan did well against the russians. i would say the same of george w. bush. which tells us we have to wait until the end of the story before we judge the president. history will judge him based on end results, not what's happening in the middle. >> correct. movement at 10 million people, threat and all kinds of things at the crackdown. they cracked down. december 1981. it took eight years until that was unravelled. what will happen, you know, i think we should judge this by what happens eight years from now. not what happens eight days from now. >> people also don't remember this because it's convenient to

forget it. but neocons in the early 1980s, eviscerated ronald reagan. and they did so because he was more interested in american farmers than, you know, banning. and they continued attacking ronald reagan through the mid to late '80s, the neocons did. >> interesting also each president deals with a different counterpart. in this case putin than who reagan was dealing with. knowing putin, what do you think is his end game? i mean, if he wants eastern ukraine, he can roll the tanks in and it's over. what does he want out of this crisis? >> so i think it's really important to understand that, you know, he hasn't been sitting around for 15 years dreaming about bringing crimea into russia. he had a different strategy. it was to dominate the region by economic institutions. he wanted all of ukraine in.

the government fell in ukraine and he got pissed. he went into crimea. and so he's in a new strategic environment. >> how did we lie to him? how did we double cross him? >> he believes there was a deal cut between the president yanukovych and the opposition. and there was. he believes we undercut that and yanukovych fled to russia. and then it was all bets are off. i don't trust these people anymore. >> were we too clever regarding the ukrainian elections? >> no. i think that deal was, you know, we had to hold our noses. i was still in the government at the time. yanukovych ckilled innocent demonstrators. and then yanukovych fled. the reason we have this crisis, yanukovych fled and it's still

mysterious to me why he did that. >> can you understand even though you have no use for vladimir putin, why some people sympathetic to the russian cause would feel like the west was putting putin and the russians in a corner strategically in ukraine? >> i can understand it, because it's my job to explain the russians to my students and before the president. >> and the people watching "morning joe." explain the russians to the people watching "morning joe." >> well, for putin, a guy who said one of the greatest tragic situations was the collapse of the soviet union. he never liked it. he always thought the west took advantage of russia. ironically the last several years, i wouldn't cast it that way. i mean, nato's not expanding. but that's his view. and ukraine to him is part of

what he considers to be his sphere of influence. and when the government there fell, his guy, right? not just the government but his guy fell, he felt like that's the cia, that's the west pushing on russia. >> going forward -- >> he's wrong, but that's what he thinks. >> my god. commi why do you come on this show and perpetrate this? i'm joking. >> going forward the president has a theoretical range of options across the economic realm. talk about the constraints that he's under specifically something we talked about today about the europeans. which way is he limited and how can he work those limits to bring the maximum pressure on poout someone. >> the debate is between those who want to deter putin and punish him versus those that worry about the global economy. and for instance, if you go

forward with sectoral sanctions on the banking sector and oil and gas, that's going to reverberate. that's going to hurt first and foremost the europeans and maybe our economy. so he's balancing those two objectives. on the one hand, he wants to push back on putin. on the other, he doesn't want to precipitate a global recession. >> do you think it's right he would like to go further than what the europeans want to do? >> that's my sense, yeah. and interestingly, i don't have any inside information, but interestingly yesterday the head was on the list. but the head of gasprom was not on the list. >> while we have you here, i want to get your take on another story. during a closed door meeting with world leaders friday, john kerry said without a two-state solution israel risks become. an apartheid state. kerry issued a long statement saying he has never, quote,

publicly or privately that israel is an apartheid state or intends to become one. but he said he knows the power of words to create a misimpression even when unintentional. what is your take on that? that is such a charged term when it comes to israel in particular. do you make of the situation? >> just as you said, charged term. he made a mistake. he admitted he made a mistake. i've made mistakes publicly. usual will i in my bad russian when i was am bars door. said a few things i would like to roll back the tape on. does it mean that he somehow is not committed to the diplomacy that he's working hard on? of course not. >> all right. >> there's some pretty smart foreign policy people who said in many ways secretary kerry has worked as hard as some people inside israel for peace on this. so the idea he's not for peace in israel based on that -- >> exactly. doesn't mean he's achieved results.

let's be clear about that. but nobody has leaned in harder to try to make progress on this issue. >> former ambassador michael mcfaul, thank you so much. coming up next, if it turns out the clippers owner donald sterling is the voice on the tapes, how should the nba respond? we tried to bring someone in to offer an opinion. unfortunately he wasn't available, but mike lupica is. also sage steele joins us. when sales rep steve hatfield books at laquinta.com,

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there's no room for racism and discrimination. that's what i would tell you. and unfortunately, there's a man in a powerful position and a man who should be embracing minorities not discriminating against them. and it has no room in our society for it or in sports. >> all right. that was nba legend magic johnson yesterday on the scandal surrounding l.a. clippers owner donald sterling. joining us now on set, columnist for the new york daily news mike lupica and the host of nba countdown on abc and espn sage steele. good to have you both on the show this morning. >> mike, i'll start with you since you're here with us.

your first reaction when you saw this, you've covered sport ifs ar long time. you've known donald sterling, known about him. he's been around for 30 years. people in the sports world know he's not a great guy. so what was your reaction when you heard this? >> for years he's been like this crazy uncle. crazy uncle don in the nba. my pal paul westphal said he's the best kept secret in the nba. and when you hear these things, alleged this, alleged that. i don't know how the tape was doctored. maybe we'll find out. he's through. whatever adam silver announces today whether it's suspension, fine, or both of those things, this will be the beginning of the machinery to get him out of the national basketball league. one owner said we no longer want to be partners with him. and the interest of the players association and the interests of the owners for one of those rare

times is completely aligned. whatever they say today if the end game isn't getting him out of he sport, it's not going to be enough for kevin johnson. >> how has this worst kept secret began able to remain as a basketball owner? when david stern had to hear story after story after story. elgin baylor sues this guy for discrimination. was it a hear now evil, see no evil, speak no evil on stern's part? >> you know, to an extent. but i think it's really interesting. i saw what one owner said that, yeah, they'd known about this for a long time. but then, you know, they come to the league meetings and he's really entertaining and he's really funny. and by the way, you could probably pencil in a "w" every time you play the clippers for the last 30 years aside from the last two or three. because they know he's going

to -- i mean, he is the -- his franchise is the worst of all franchises in north american professional sports. since he took over the team, since he bought it in 1981, the worst winning percentage of all of them. keep him there and we'll ignore the stuff on the side. this is a big day for adam silver today. he's known certainly david stern knew. and the owners, his peers have known and allowed it up until this point. so all of a sudden let's come together and kick him out now. mike, you know better than me. you've been doing it longer. but they've known gr a long time. thank goodness for the crazy girlfriend who recorded it allegedly and got the tapes out there. because finally now i believe the right thing will happen. >> off what sage just said, mike, the precedence for this doesn't exist really. there is sort of a precedence.

there's no precedent tr taking a team from someone. >> mark cuban said it's a slippery slope. no one knows how sweeping sterling is. bud has never actually used them. even against mcchord when the sees the team for financial reasons. the closest you can come is george steinberg was temporarily suspended from baseball for life for paying a dead beat $40,000 to dig up dirt on one of his players. they're going to make it as unpleasant as possible except this is a stubborn old man. and he -- as a friend of mine said yesterday, he will sue them at the drop of a hat because it's what he does. it's what he's done apart from basketball. >> internally, too, there's the issue of not to be understated you go to the clippers, you win a game. >> not anymore though. that's why this year's different. >> now they want to kick him out. >> there's a weird sort of karma

at work here. i'm not saying they would have. favored to win the championship, but after being this joke clown team for 25 or 26 years, now in a year when they have a chance to do something, this is on these players and coach and they didn't do anything here. >> >> let's ask some uncomfortable questions around this. this reminds me of penn state where nobody said anything until it went too far. but you've got someone out of control but he's powerful bhop are these people, sage, giving him naacp awards and why? and who are these people who protecting the crazy uncle and why? and who are these people dating this guy and why? same answer, by the way, for every question. >> yeah. there's so many different layers to this. >> money. >> congratulations for saying we're not going to give an award. what happened in 2009 when you

did give him an award when there had been decades at that point as well of discrimination. he's gone on record. i think it's fascinating that now they're going to say we're not going to associate with him when a couple years ago he was giving you $50,000, it was okay. there's a lot of enabling from several different groups. but we can't enable. >> yeah. >> sage, i'd be interested to hear since you were there with imagine you can when he made that first statement sitting next to you on the set the other day. he said he was hurt. he looked like he was hurt by this. this all stemmed from a photograph taken with this young woman and magic at a dodger game that outraged donald sterling. if you could take us behind the scenes a bit, what was that day like? >> yeah. i have never seen magic truly sad. that's the word he used and that's the word i believe he truly meant. he was almost nervous talking

about it because it hurt him. he called him a friend. he's one of the first people he met when he came to los angeles 30-plus years ago. so it was devastating for him. and then anger, true anger about what he has done in magic's words, he has taken the spotlight away from what in many of our minds is the best first round of playoff in nba history. taking all the attention away from these players who have gone out there and busted their butts. i've never seen magic like that. he's hurt and angry. but i think it's a good thing. you don't want magic johnson angry and he's going to make sure that this is not ai lowed to continue and donald sterling will not be allowed to continue. it's going to take some time. we don't know all the bylaws of these. but the guy's going to go down not as quickly as we would like today or should have done years

ago if people hadn't enabled. >> mike, one of the stories that unfortunately is not being talked about right now out of the nba playoffs, the atlanta hawks pushing the pacers. one game away from elimination, they could have closed out the series. they lost the third or fourth game. they should have won. what's happening with the hawks pushing the pacers to the wall? >> there's something going on in my locker room of the pacer. i turned on the tv to catch the second half. the pacers are losing by 30 points at home and people were walking out of the place like somebody pulled the fire alarm. >> sage, your pacers, what's going on? >> it's killing me. i think in game one -- mike, was it game one when roy hibbert took a three-point shot? my 11-year-old daughter said, mommy, why is roy hibbert shooting a three from the

corner? this team has completely lost their identity. it's so sad. it's honestly one of the biggest, biggest meltdowns we've seen in professional sports. this is massive. and the atlanta hawks, more power to them. go, guys. but the pacers, my pacers are pathetic. >> and your 11-year-old daughter may take your job in four or five years. >> yes. >> you get asked a lot of tough questions as a parent. but why is roy hibbert shooting? that's the toughest i've heard. >> i love that. >> mike lupica, sage steele, thank you so much. >> thank you. still ahead, republicans have their eyes on the senate takeover and they're making a push in some unlikely states. we'll have a look at some of the surprising races. you're watching "morning joe." ♪

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why we're going nowhere. and that's because we the people have a.d.d. the lack of a laugh of recognition from many of you scares the [ muted ] out of me. that means you don't think you have a.d.d. which means you have it worse than anybody in the room. you didn't get through the [ muted ] sentence with me. you stopped and went away. oh, yes. i know tomorrow's sunday i'm going to have brunch. >> up next, the man who made ranting an art form. author and comedian lewis black standing by. look how cute he is. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ vo: once upon a time

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i work with people who are crazy too. when they're crazy -- >> but you can be crazy here. then when you walk off here, no, get a grip. >> just fyi, we're on the air. >> we did the williamstown

theater festival at different times and i was telling about one of the actors i worked with. one of them he called crazy and i said that's why he's so good. >> you have to be crazy to get into your business. >> you have to be crazy to have the -- you know, because you have an instinct to go do that, which is a certain an mount of madness, but then you get help, people around you care, say stop it. >> true. >> a lot of intervention. >> with that person, did it ever stop? >> no. >> grammy award-winning comedian lewis black. lewis, it's always great to have you here. >> how are you? >> it gets better every morning. >> really? >> you're not a morning person either. >> no. this is -- and i was thinking about this while i was trundling over here, but we can really -- we don't have to live like this. >> why? >> because we should shift the clock. >> oh, i like that. >> this show should be starting about 10:00. >> can you believe these hours?

>> we wake up at 4:00 every day. >> well, it doesn't help. >> 4:00? >> it doesn't help america, it helps no one. >> i in particular am bad for america so tell us about old yeller. am i going to cry at the end of this special? >> no, they don't shoot me. >> do they barely miss? >> they barely miss. my mother is there so there's a moment of side kick shooting. >> i always heard this story, i would just play 30 minutes of "daily show" and your mother would call you and go is jon in trouble again? you'd go no, he's just doing it to get ratings. >> so we did it as pay purview and now it's coming out on epix this friday. if you live in new york, it's free. epix -- if you have time warner, epix is on the air. >> we've got a period of

incredible turnover in late night television comedy. just talk about, you know all these guys, you've been on a lot of these shows. what do you think about this moment when all this new talent, all this new change? >> i'm glad we're discussing yet again many of the reasons i don't get a late night show. >> why don't you get late night shows? what's happening? >> i have no interest in interviewing people. >> really? >> i like people but i really don't care what they have to say. >> there's nothing wrong with that. >> it's just they talk. i think i could do it if you didn't have to -- like i'm doing, in part i have to go out and talk about what i'm doing, but i'm not on 95 shows. you're not going to see me in the next hour talking about the same thing again and what was it like working with brad pitt. >> what was it like working with brad pitt? >> who cares? i agree with you, who cares? >> really, after the first 20 -- but apparently they have got these counters in rooms somewhere who go, well, if we get him here, we do that.

>> oh, i bet you don't do well in focus groups. i bet you do terribly. >> no, there's certain pockets of the country where there's a certain amount of rage. >> what pocket is that? >> i will take you -- get on the bus. get on my tour bus. >> i'm going. >> they're there, man. everybody loves lewis black. >> you're doing a good thing. you're having a huge fund-raiser for cystic fibrosis research. >> that's actually really important. >> what drew you to cystic fibrosis. >> i just ended up doing -- sadly a selfish thing because they needed someone to do stand-up at a golf tournament that they were having. this is 18 years ago. and i went down and i did it and then i became involved. i didn't know anybody -- i didn't even know what the disease was about and back then there wasn't google, so who knew. i've become more and more involved. i return every year and kind of host that tournament. and now i finally said -- they wanted to do something and i said why don't we do something in new york and i'll try to get

all of the people that i can to get on a stage. so i've got -- on monday night at rose hall, 7:00 in new york city, all the money is going, except for the -- we've got to pay unions and stuff, but all the money coming in is going to the cystic fibrosis foundation. i've got robin williams on tape, i've got will ferrell doing something money on tape, meryl streep on tape so i've got a bunch of video too. >> you do like people. >> yes, i do. >> he doesn't admit it, though. >> look, i couldn't be this angry if i didn't like people. >> that's true. >> so let's finish on politics. >> oh, good. >> i like this. so george wallace once said there's not a dime's worth of difference between republicans and democrats. you disagree because you say republicans say really stupid things and you say democrats are dumb. and you call yourself a socialist. >> yeah. >> but you say you're one of only seven socialists in america.

>> maybe nine. >> where do you go if you want to find the leader of the socialists? >> you go to a graveyard. you can see them there. norman thomas is there. there's a name, why don't you look that up. >> what? >> norman thomas. >> there you go. >> i'm serious, they never -- that was like a name mentioned around my house. you knew who he was and you actually read about him in school. that's gone. there's bernie sanders, there's me. and to say that obama is a socialist is -- well, look, we have weinie roasts every two weeks and he never shows up. >> socialist weinie roast. that's a party i want to go to. >> do you watch television? >> yeah. >> what do you think of this show? i'm scared to ask. >> i never watch it. >> he doesn't wake up. >> i've got things to do. >> at that point i'm hitting my rem. >> i tell you what i'm going to be doing, i'm going to be

watching lewis black -- >> ole yeller on epix. >> what's the website. >> lewisblackcss.org. >> you can also buy tickets to lewis blacks presents big stars, black cure, lewisblackcff.com. lewis black, thank you. >> we love having you. >> we'll be right back. ♪

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he says some of his best credit cards are black. i would take the reins of what once was and again will be the most miserable franchise --. >> all of a sudden not such a bummer to be a lakers fan this month anymore. good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast. >> it's a great morning. >> 5:00 a.m. on the west coast as you take a live look at new york city.

it may be raining outside. >> my football coach said, you know, we may be small, but we're slow. >> who else is here? >> mike barnicle and in washington eugene -- just be quiet. >> let's talk about the nba right now. >> later today the commissioner of the nba will weigh in on the alleged racist rant by l.a. clippers owner donald sterling four days after tmz first released the tapes. several sponsors already making their judgments, suspending or reviewing their deals with the clippers. some of the top brands include virgin america, kia, samsung. the recordings capture sterling scolding his mistress at the time for bringing african-american men to clippers games and posting photos of them on her instagram account. now several team owners are addressing how the league should

punish sterling if it proves to be his voice. >> look at those two. who would know they were having problems. they look like they go together perfectly. that is a love story right there. look at them. >> she thinks he's so sglaut what are they, five years apart? maybe five years apart. >> she's like, wow, i have a winner here. >> she's there for love. >> and he's there for love too. >> we call that a november-january right now. >> that's a december 31st-january 2nd. >> really, some old men ought to be ashamed of themselves, seriously, and some very young women should be ashamed of themselves too. >> that's what i was going to say. mark cuban of the dallas mavericks cautioned against the league overreaching. >> really? really, mark cuban? >> okay, mark. saying there's no place for racism in the nba. okay, thank you for getting that out on the record. any business i'm associated with, and i don't want to be associated with people that have that position but at the same time that's a decision i make.

i think you've got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think, as opposed to what they do. it's a very, very slippery slope. >> that's why the naacp was going to honor him until finally they couldn't because he said something so incredibly inappropriate. it's disgusting, i'm sorry. >> gene robinson, kareem abdul-jabbar has a fantastic op-ed in "time" magazine we're going to get to in a second. not as fantastic as yours. but elgin baylor sued this guy for racial discrimination. we heard one complaint after another after another. come on. are we to believe that david stern didn't know that crap was going on? >> david stern was a really observant guy. he knew everything that was going on in the league and he knew donald sterling for 30 years or something like that, so of course he knew -- he knew

about the guy. you know, it's -- i mean it's interesting because if you think about it, it actually does make a difference. certainly to the players and to the coach, doc rivers, that this stuff all becomes public. they must have known that this was not a guy who was probably going to invite them over for dinner. and that he had -- that there was some ugliness inside there. but, you know, as long as it wasn't expressed every day and it wasn't expressed in this very public way, you know, i think they could feel comfortable. those are the people who are really, i think, caught in this situation, the people who work and play for him. and so now publicly they have to associate themselves, you know, with this awful racist who thinks they are, you know, inferior, not part of his culture and not worthy of coming to his games unless he's paying

them. >> willie, the players are in a horrible position. last night i thought a great moment when the heat joined in silent protest, right? >> they did the same thing that the clippers did the night before. they took off their shooting jerseys, revealed their warmups were inside out. not a statement about their owner or their team but just showing solidarity with what the clippers are going through. now these guys and doc rivers, their head coach, in the middle of a playoff series. they have had a great season, worked very hard, are now having to put up with this and answer questions about this around the clock. hopefully some pressure can come off them. there's so much to say about this but when you start at the very beginning it shows how deep if this tape in fact is donald sterling, how deep his racism is. that he was upset that this woman brought magic johnson to a clippers game, arguably the most beloved athlete in the united states of america. >> that's like somebody in a restaurant in london in like 1985 saying how dare you bring a

woman like that to my restaurant, pointing at margaret thatcher. are you kidding me? >> exactly. it's terrible on his face but he was upset that magic johnson was at his game. he's lucky magic johnson was at his game. there's so much here. now, there is -- >> which raises a question. why was magic johnson at a clippers game? >> i think the picture actually was at -- they had dodgers gear on. >> actually i'm joking. >> anyway, but if you read cuban's full quote, he comes down very hard on sterling. we just read part of it there. but there is something to the idea that being reprehensible and being a racist and everything else is not grounds for having ownership taken away, but the free market can take care of it. sponsors run away, players say we're not going to play on this team, free agents won't sign, fans stop coming to the game and the other 29 owners start coming down on him. as we get closer to the

critical midterm elections, new signs that president obama may be politically toxic for democratic candidates according to a new news poll. the president's approval rating is now at 41% among registered voters. the lowest in this poll since the start of his presidency. he's also struggling on the major issues of the day. only 42% approve of his handling of the economy, 37% approve of his implementation of the affordable care act and 34% approve his handling of the situation in ukraine. and when voters were asked specifically whether they would rather have democrats in control of congress to support president obama's policies or republican majority to keep him in check, 53% sided with republican majority. >> wow. >> only 39% want democrats in charge. >> willie, do you have vertigo yet? like three weeks ago three weeks ago people want republicans in the senate, a week and a half ago good numbers on obamacare and then we get polls out, oh,

democrats are going to maintain -- now these numbers are stunning. not so much the president's numbers because i think it's more about ukraine right now, i personally think that. but that 53-39, whatever that number, it changes every week. >> his personal numbers are back to all-time lows but if you look inside that affordable care number it's actually down five points previous to when they announced we've got eight million people signed up. everything has changed. all the website stuff is behind us. democrats will start running on this issue and they have started to in some places. then you actually see how the american public generally feels about it and their feelings are worse than they were a month ago when the tide had supposedly turned for the affordable care act. >> john, numbers are all over the place here. a couple of weeks ago i saw where it was almost close to breaking even, like 48%, 49%. again, it's just one poll. it may be an outlier, blah, blah, blah, but i doubt it.

numbers this bad. and by the way, it's gene's newspaper so it's got to be right. right, john? >> whatever "the washington post" says has to be true. >> the numbers are so different, joe. they're all over the map and so i think, you know, you look at this poll and you take it seriously and you also wait for the next poll and see whether these numbers, you know, are confirmed or if they're back up or whatever. >> john. >> the bottom line is that the affordable care act will get a little more popular. by the time we get to november it will probably be more popular than it is today but it's not going to be a net winner for democrats in november. some democrats will need to run on it for the reasons that you said, because running away from it is more politically damaging than running with it. but it's not the case that's going to be in november that democrats are going to be -- they're going to embrace it because they have to but the numbers are not going to swing in a direction that are going to make the affordable care act a

big trump card for democrats in november. >> so it's going to be a state by state by state case, which we've talked about for some time now. in some states it's going to be very bad. in louisiana, maybe mary landrieu can actually run on the affordable care act and criticize states for not accepting the medicaid money. that may be something that drives some of her constituents out to the polls. so it's a state-by-state basis but there is no doubt there's a connection between the president and his approval rating and how his party does in off-year elections so obviously democrats are a little more nervous. >> right. given that, you should also look at the other parts of the poll where when asked who they trust to solve the country's problems, 40% say democrats, 34% say republicans. breaking it down further, the democrats have a commanding lead over the republicans when it comes to women's issues. helping with the middle class, health care and immigration. >> and yet republicans of up by

12, 13 points. i don't get it, i'm confused. >> i have a question for the table. >> yes. >> what do we think of the increasing reliance of newspapers, major newspapers on running poll story after poll story after poll story. >> kind of a slow time. >> rather than explanatory stories about the impact of these policies on specific states and people in this country. >> okay, other news now, john kerry is on the defensive about comments about america's close ally, israel. >> yeah. >> "the daily beast" first reported during a closed door meeting with world leaders on friday, the secretary of state admonished israel's government. he reportedly said that without a two-state solution, israel risks becoming an apartheid state. yesterday kerry issued a lengthy statement saying he has never publicly or privately said that israel is an apartheid state or that it intends to become one. >> this is technically correct. >> but in the same statement he went on to say he, quote, knows the power of words to create a misimpression, even when unintentional, and if i could

rewind the tape, i would have chosen a different word. >> so, willie, obviously politicians in washington, d.c., on both sides of the aisle, barbara boxer to ted cruz, not really happy with the statement. >> ted cruz calling for john kerry's resignation yet on the floor of the senate. does anyone think, though, that secretary kerry said that intentionally or do we think that was a gaffe? do you think he wanted that word out there to put pressure on? >> it's a word that's actually been used before by, you know, jimmy carter has used it. it's caused a lot of angst in foreign policy circles after he used it. there are some people that have used it. no secretary of state, though, has said that publicly or privately. and obviously it's not only causing a lot of concern in washington, but obviously in israel. >> i know, i think the secretary understands the impact of it. i just wonder did he say that intentionally?

did he want that to slip out? did he want to put pressure on people or do you think it was just purely a gaffe? >> john, what do you think? he's obviously very frustrated that the peace process that he's been pushing so hard went off track. i wonder if that was just frustration talking to world leaders. >> my gut says it's more frustration than it was a calculated gaffe because it has blown up in this way. but to me it's the language of op-eds rather than the language of diplomacy. that's the thing that op-ed writers will put out there. it's not an unreasonable statement, risks the decline into a situation in which a political -- a minority, a racial minority is governing in an undemocratic way a racial majority. there are many people who are concerned that that is a possible thing that could happen. >> i couldn't disagree with you more. i couldn't disagree with you more for 20 years just about you saying that it's a reasonable statement. i think there are a lot of americans that don't think it is

a reasonable statement. >> that there is a risk of that happening? >> yes. no, there's not a risk that the government of israel is going to devolve into what johannesburg was like back in the '60s, '70s and '80s. >> i think there is technically speaking, what many are concerned about and some israeli politicians have voiced this in the past that in a situation unless you have a two-state solution you will inevitably, because of demographic trends, have a jewish minority is trying to govern over a nonjewish majority and that in some sense could lead to an undemocratic -- >> don't mean to cut you off, we could debate israel for three hours. i wanted to go back to your bigger point and that was about john kerry using the language of op-ed writers. >> and i think that's a dangerous position for a secretary of state to get into. i think his explanation, though it's not going to the him out of hot water, he's actually speaking the truth in that he

was trying to say, look, i'm not saying it is this, i'm saying this is the dangerous slippery slope and i shouldn't have said it in the way that i said it because it's kind of inflammatory. >> before we go to break there's been another deadly day of weather in the south. at least 11 people are dead after a second round of tornados tore through mississippi, alabama and tennessee. that brings the death toll since sunday to at least 28 people. in tupelo, mississippi, officials are reporting damage to every building in a two-block span with homes wiped away and power lines littered across the street. the tornado was so strong the local nbc meteorologist was forced to seek safety in the basement during a live broadcast. >> basement now. go! now. >> what? >> now! >> all right. now let's check in with bill karins for more on this,

apparently not ending. >> and they were okay, by the way. the tornado kind of jumped right over their building, right near it. yeah, yesterday afternoon was very frightful for people from alabama, mississippi and even in portions of georgia for a portion last night. we're going to do it all over again today. here's the risk area for today, this area of red. unfortunately it's the same people that were just yesterday hunkering down in their basements, shelters or closets. this area of red, moderate risk of strong tornados once again today. hattiesburg, tuscaloosa, birmingham all included in this. you may go up into a high risk later on today. we still have some strong storms that just rolled through pensacola, panama city. not tornados but these storms will end as we go throughout the morning and weekend. in all, we have seen over 60 tornados in the last two days and we're going to probably see another dozen to two dozen today. we're also going to watch a ton of rain on the eastern seaboard. as far as that timing goes, guys, again, late this afternoon, this evening best chance for tornados.

how's this for a number. 76 million people at risk of severe storms and tornados today. coming up next on "morning joe" former senator rick santorum is here. >> krpt nbc's tyler mathisen and jordan roth with a preview of this year's tony nominations up next. coming up next, the top stories in the political playbook. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back, i promise. vo: once upon a time there was a boy who traveled to a faraway place where villages floated on water and castles were houses dragons lurked giants stood tall and the good queen showed the boy it could all be real avo: whatever you can imagine, all in one place expedia, find yours

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welcome back to "morning joe." a lot to talk about. first of all, you can see why a young woman would want to date

this man. look at him, he's beautiful. no, look at the chins. can we just look at the chin? right there, seriously? >> that is -- >> if i'm a young woman, this is -- this is number one. >> which chin are you talking about? >> that one right there. you know, clooney is like number two, right, but this guy, number one. girls -- and by the way, girls, he's available now. >> are we allowed to say the true nature of that relationship or am i going to get in trouble? >> i don't think you need to connect the dots. >> he's giving her gifts and money and she's giving him sex so that's basically the relationship. mika, you had a great night last night. >> i did. >> a very important issue to you. >> the national eating disorders association honored me, which was unbelievable. it was their biggest event yet. diana williams from channel 7 was the emcee for the evening and these are -- there's diane smith, who co-wrote "obsessed with me" and dr. margo maine, who's an incredible eating

disorders specialist, a therapist, and it was a wonderful, wonderful evening. really an epidemic across our country. and that woman went in and got a raise the next day. >> she didn't get fired. >> the next day. >> so this is obviously -- and we saw it with your book "obsessed," this is a critical issue for young men but also women of all ages. >> america's entire relationship with food and the diet that we have is not, you know, not healthy. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> did you figure out what my eating disorder is? >> yes, you eat too much and it is not great food, so there you go. time to take a look -- but you look better lately. >> i'm kind of thinning out a little bit. >> i'm going to be honest. you know i'm always honest. >> t.j., don't ever do that shot again. >> why don't you center in on his chin. the wall street journal, the new york times, net income fell

a whopping 51% last quarter. ouch. as higher operating costs overwhelmed revenue growth. the paper is projecting a midsingle-digit drop in sales next quarter. they describe the ad market as volatile on a month-to-month basis. print ad revenue is at its lowest level since 1950. when the newspaper association of america began tracking ad data. bad news for the "times." >> mike, those numbers are really bad. a precipitous drop. the lowest numbers for newspaper as far as ad revenue goes since 1950. >> across the board. you think of the things you want to sell as an individual, a home, a car, they're all online. and it's all gone. it's a precipitous drop. >> more parade of papers, the "san antonio news express" a texas teen is under arrest after bringing several weapons including a loaded ak-47 gun to

their high school. he's charged with possession of a weapon in a prohibited place making it a terrorist threat. reports say he wanted to read a list of demands over the school intercom, no weapons were fired and no one was hurt. thank god the parents were alert to the fact and called authorities. >> horrible. the "chicago tribune" says the amount of violence teenagers are exposed to as fallen drastically during the last decade. the university of new hampshire report says that children reported less exposure to violent behavior between 2003 and 2011. researchers say violence prevention strategies have been on the rise in recent years, especially at school. and "the new york times," the white house is releasing a series of guidelines to pressure colleges to combat sexual assault on campus. the recommendations urge them to conduct anonymous surveys and also asks universities to crack down on cases by adopting successful policies from other schools. the guidelines are from a task

force created by the president earlier this year. the "times picayune" embattled celebrity chef paula deen announced plans for a 20-city tour this summer. the move comes as deen continues to launch a comeback following a racial slur and scandal that damaged her image nearly a year ago. paula deen live will feature a mix of cooking, interactive games and personal stories from the chef. you know what, they might want to cut out that part, especially if it's ad lib. i'm just telling you. she's going to do it again. >> i can't believe you would think somebody that was -- you would think, willie, somebody that is this embattled would not get the guests that she's going to get at these tours. unbelievable. the west coast part of the tour, you know who her special guest is going to be? >> who? >> this guy. >> stop it! >> this guy. >> stop it! >> this guy cooks a mean

lasagna. >> pours a lot of butter in there. >> and triple fried lasagna. but look at this. >> no disrespect. >> there's no disrespect intended, but his chin has paid for his cooking prowess. >> i don't really understand the cooking of hers is incredibly unhealthy. >> it's delicious. >> it's delicious. >> and her use of words and attitudes toward people is incredibly like four decades back. i don't get her. >> he's going to clean up the act for her. let's go to willie right now. >> let's look at the editor in chief of politico, mr. john harris. >> good morning, willie. >> let's talk about congressman michael grimm from right here in new york city over in staten island. he says federal fraud charges will not stop him from winning re-election this fall. he's facing 20 criminal counts for allegedly failing to account more than a million bucks in

sales and wages at a manhattan restaurant he once managed. what does the future look like for congressman grimm. >> well, it is a little grim if you let me apologize for overworking that pun, which has been used many times for michael grimm, but the situation is really bad. politicians when they get in trouble seem to go through these stages of grief where they feel they can work their way out of their problems. every once in a while they do. sometimes somebody gets really sick and they get better. usually they get sick and they die. in michael grimm's stages of grief, he's setting up meetings with house gop leaders in which

he's clearly looking for a sign of support. hey, are you with me? >> the question eventually becomes why would you stay? how can you be effective? every once in a while the voters decide this in the politicians' favor. we have to realize usually when they're in the soup this deep, they don't. >> john harris, thanks a lot, john. still ahead, rick santorum has a simple plan for conservatives wanting to retake the white house in 2016. he says don't forget the blue collar vote. he joins us next. more "morning joe" right after this. when i started weight watchers

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you know, as we inch closer to this year's midterm elections, republicans are starting to get bullish on their chances at the ballot box, especially in the senate where states that were once thought to be solid blue could be turning red. >> the national republican senatorial committee is looking to expand their political map.

a recent memo outlines the case for a republican takeover in some surprising places. in colorado, congressman cory gardner's entry is shaking up the rocky mountain senate race. according to a quinnipiac poll he is trailing mark udall by only one point. in a recent u.s. chamber of commerce poll gives gardner a two-point lead amongst likely voters n iowa, president obama's disapproval ratings are weighing down democratic congressman bruce braley's bid. his negative comments on farmers have hurt his cause. >> you might have a farmer from iowa who never went to law school serving as the next chair of the senate judiciary committee. >> with polling continuing to show him garnering less than 40% against his gop rivals. and in my home state of oregon, the gop appears to be pinning its hopes on unseating jeff merkley with dr. monica webbe. she is being praised for her

fund-raising prowess and a new ad may play well where the obamacare rollout has been a disaster. >> dr. webby was the first person that gave us hope. she was the first person that said, congratulations, you're having a daughter. >> the anointing of her may be premature as many polls show her trailing jason conger. senator america m echt r -- mer appears vulnerable. if expanding the map allows the gop to travel down the oregon trail, it could prove to be a rough ride for the republicans. joe, mika, back to you. you know, we were talking in break about this "washington post"/abc poll which as a republican, the republican in me would like to believe there's a 13 or 14-point gap in the generic ballot test. i don't see that happening in a week and a half. >> yeah, it seems a little --

you call something an outlier until you see what comes after it but i think it's a little -- it seems a little bit outside the lines of what we would consider normally. these things happen sometimes even with reliable polls. occasionally you see one way outside. >> it could be accurate but there is obviously a lot of volatility. with us now former presidential candidate and former republican senator from pennsylvania, rick santorum. he's the author of "blue collar conservatives" recommitting to an america that works. ri rick, if republicans are going to do well in 2014, republicans need to reconnect with blue collar voters that elected ronald reagan. >> joe scarborough. >> and elected -- it's the blue collar voters that win elections for us. >> it used to be the base. >> what happened? >> well, we've gone off the rails. you hear this talk about establishment republicans versus the tea party. but i think it's establishment

republicans versus sort of the working guy. you have all these folks who fund campaigns who are focused just on big businesses and wall street and even small business, all of which are important elements of our society, but we forget that the idea -- i have a whole chapter in the book on this, where a rising tide lifts all votes. not if your vote has a hole in it. a lot of americans have holes in their votes. they have issues they're dealing with, whether it's family or personal or financial. so when they hear about this rising tide coming up and new technology and new this, and they're one of the 70% of the americans who don't have a college education, they're enthusiasticing, wait a minute, my vote is going to sink, i'm not going to rise. and in fact in this economy it has been sinking. >> and average wages for working americans have been going down consistently since 19 -- since 1973, rick. there's a debate right now, the intellectuals are having it, over this new book "capital in the 21st century." and there's this presumption that republicans automatically

have to side with the 1%. no. >> we don't. >> but that's where we've been perceived to side and that's where a lot of our leaders have sided. >> look at what ronald reagan did. what ronald reagan did and i'm not saying we need to go back to reagan policies, but the principle behind what reagan tried to do with the tax code was try to equalize the tax on labor and capital. if you remember the 1976 tax act, he reduced the top rate to 28%. oh, it's a horrible thing. remember, when you're taxing income, you're taxing workers. it's a tax on labor, it's a tax on work. so he raised the capital gains tax was high, it was almost equal to the -- >> which is at the center of the book. >> of that book, right. >> which is when people are making more money on their capital, on passive investments than workers in america, that's when we lose. >> the whole idea is if you want more of something, subsidize it, if you want less of something, tax it.

so the idea of cutting taxes is a good idea. >> on income, for workers. >> on income. and i'm not one of these guys, oh, we need to zero the capital gains and all this stuff. i disagree with that. >> let me ask the other guys really quickly and see if you agree with me. warren buffett should not be paying 14% tax rate while his secretary is paying 28% tax rate, true or false? >> in the book i address the issue that we have to reform the tax code. people are saying why are people not being hired? because of the regulatory environment of this administration. obamacare putting another tax on labor by saying if you want to hire somebody, you've got to pay them this and pay them that. we keep -- for helping people, the minimum wage, we're going to help people. we're going to make wages more. you do that, you disin sent viez people to hire and incentivize them to buy a machine. >> when you raise the minimum wage you disincentivize them? >> of course, you make labor more expensive.

>> what about rebuilding the american labor trade union. >> i've never been an anti-union guy. i've always gotten a large share of the union vote. i'm a big guy on manufacturing, on energy production. we need to create an economy that works for working people. and this book, if you look at it, there's a big plan on how to get manufacturing up and going, and educational opportunities, vocational training, all the things we need to do to create the skilled workers we need to make sure these jobs can be done. >> john. >> 2016, you were the runner-up in 2012. >> i was. thank you for reminding me. can you say that again? a lot of people say that. >> rick santorum, runner-up in 2012. >> 11 states, did you mention i won 11 states. >> i didn't, but i'm glad that you did. >> most since ronald reagan in 1976. >> i was about to praise you some more. >> go ahead, i'll back away. >> as you know being the runn runner-up is a pretty good thing if you want to run again. why wouldn't you run in 2016?

>> really the only reason is family considerations. we have seven children, we have a lot of issues with our youngest daughter and as you know that was a big factor in the last race. i've got to make sure everybody is healthy and ready to go. >> how's bella doing? >> she's doing great. i thank everybody for their prayers and their thoughts sending her way, but that's sort of the big issue for me is always family first. >> if it wasn't for that do you think you could win? >> look, i thought i could have won last time. i'm convinced, i asked one of the obama minions, why didn't you guys help me? i was up there battling romney and all these folks on msnbc saying wouldn't it be great if santorum was the nominee. why didn't you help me? why didn't you hit me as being conservative, help me out a little bit? and the consensus was we didn't want you because of this. you know, there was a survey, when i finished the campaign, two days after the campaign, i met with the campaign manager for romney and his pollster. neil newhouse handed me a poll

from pennsylvania, this is all in the book, and it says we started noticing that the exit polls were always wrong with you. so we started asking this question. who are you going to vote for and when are you planning to vote? they showed this survey from pennsylvania that if you were going to vote -- this is three days before i got out. if you were voting before noon, i was up by five. if you vote between noon and 5:00 i was down four. if you vote after five, i was up 21. >> when working people go to the polls. >> and that's what the other side is scared to death of. >> the book is "blue collar deserve afterno conservatives." i hope you come back. >> i'd love to come back. coming up next, cnbc celebrating its anniversary, 25 years on the air. tyler mathisen joins us next. ♪

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cnbc's tyler mathisen, tyler, very exciting cnbc out with its first 25 list. explain who's on it and why. >> well, what we did in connection with our 25th anniversary, folks, is try and develop a list of the 25 rebels, icons and business leaders who transformed or left their mark on business, finance, the markets, and consumer culture over the past 25 years. we started with a big list of 200. we whittled it down to 100 and then the very hard cuts got us down to a final 25. >> so who do we have? >> in number five, well, let's go backwards, jeff bezos, the guy who made e-commerce flow like a mighty river out at amazon.com. so he certainly is there. who doesn't use amazon these days. number four, the google guys. can you go a day really without googling? larry schmidt, the ceo, designated adult in the room. at number three, alan greenspan

and ben bernanke, the only central bankers this country has known over that 25-year span until just earlier this year with janet yellen. bill gates at number two, probably the hottest debate was whether he should be number one or the man who we ultimately decided would be number one, steve jobs. who should be one, who should be two, both revolutionaries and both game changers. >> why did you big jobs? >> we picked jobs because of the creativity, the ubiquitousness of his products, the fact that he revolutionized not just computing but music, telephony, tablet computing, retailing and movies. nobody, nobody, not edison, not sam walton, has done anything like that. >> we all miss him and a lot of apple customers miss steve jobs very much. >> absolutely. cnbc's tyler mathisen, thank you. the first 25 airs tonight at 7:00 p.m. >> that looks great, tyler. thank you so much. up next, tony award nominees are just out and jordan roth

standing by with reaction. >> oh, my goodness. >> more "morning joe" when we return. why relocating manufacturingpany to upstate new york? i tell people it's for the climate.

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those are my boots. joining us now on set to discuss tony award nominations just out like this second, jordan roth. do i get a tony? >> this is last year's tony for kinky boots. there it is.

>> what have we got? >> this is literally broadway breaking news. i feel like election night watching returns come in. the big winner of the nominations, "gentleman's guide to love and murder" with ten nominations. now, it opened in the fall and has struggled to get attention. this will be its big moment. get your tickets today. >> what else, what else? >> lead actress in a musical, sutton foster, kel owe o'hara, jesse mueller from "beautiful." mary bridget davis and adena menzel. for the first time nominators could go up to five nominees or down to three. they didn't do that in best musical. >> better actst actor? >> best actor in a musical, both gentlemen from "gentleman's

guide" as well as the great neil patrick harris. neil will not be hosting this year because he's starring in the show. hugh jackman will join as a host. >> that's good, right? >> the other best musical nominees, "aladdin," "beautiful," "after midnight." >> best actor dramatic in a play? >> the great bryan cranston playing lbj. interestingly denzel washington not nominated. >> what? >> for his really very celebrated performance in "raisin in the sun." all of his co-stars were nominated, so i think a lot of love will be shown to that. >> what's that about? why the omission? >> i think it's really about an amazing group of many fabulous performances. this is a great season on broadway. >> can i keep this? >> no. >> okay. >> but it will come to visit you every time i come. >> all right. >> and of course on

culturist.com we are listing the top ten nominees who should win. log on. >> we will go on it today. >> thank you. and thank you for prizes for knowing your value. jordan roth, thank you. up next, what, if anything, did we learn today. com, gets a ready for you alert the second his room is ready. so he knows exactly when he can prep for his presentation. and when steve is perfectly prepped, ya know what he brings? and that's how you'll increase market share. any questions? can i get an "a", steve? yes! three a's! amazing sales! he brings his a-game! la quinta inns and suites is ready for you, so you'll be ready for business. the ready for you alert, only at laquinta.com! la quinta!

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low dues... great terms... let's close. new at&t mobile share value plans. our best value plans ever for business. welcome back to "morning joe." it's time to talk about what we learned. what did you learn? >> i want to thank the national eating disorders association for honoring me last night.

it was a really important event. their best crowd ever. >> great work. >> donald sterling has eclipsed a great nba playoff series, sadly. >> i learned that paula deen when she goes on her west coast swing is taking mr. sterling with her. >> and will have as their emcee cliven bundy. >> i think he has box seats at the clippers games, courtside. >> i wondered why he always got such good seats there. if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." stick around, up next, "the daily rundown." and we begin with breaking news out of georgia right now where we just learned that the suspect in a shooting this morning at a fedex facility is dead. the shooting happened around 5:45 this morning in kennesaw, georgia. at least six people were shot, one is in critical